important notice about the idrn

Dear colleagues,

The Infectious Disease Research Network has been in existence since 2001, and we are grateful to have been funded through that time by the Department of Health.

The existing contract ends 30 September 2015. At the same time, IDRN Manager Michael Head, who has been in post since 2004, will be moving to the University of Southampton to lead on the Research Investments in Global Health study (ResIn, www.researchinvestments.org).

But we are pleased to announce that the future stewardship of the Network will now be taken over by colleagues at University of Birmingham, led by Prof Robin May. Prof May will be seeking new funding for the project. Therefore, there is likely to be a hiatus in IDRN activity after 30 September. In the meantime, we plan to keep occasional newsletters going out and for the site webpages to be updated where possible.

Updates on the IDRN will be posted on www.idrn.org and sent out to the mailing list. From the secretariat at UCL (Andrew Hayward, Michael Head, Cherry Heaven), thank you to everyone who has contributed to the success of the Network over the last 14 years.

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Research for the next pandemic: a twitter chat hosted through @WeDocs

Researchers from PREPARE are co-ordinating a Twitter chat about research during the next pandemic on Weds 16th September 2015 8pm to 9pm.
Funded by the EU, PREPARE has been established to conduct large-scale clinical research on infectious diseases. Their work includes multi-site observational research and adaptive clinical trials in primary care and ICU across Europe conducted during inter-pandemic “peacetimes”. These studies create an infrastructure that can rapidly be up scaled to respond to any severe ID outbreak, providing real time evidence for clinical and public health decision making. Other work includes the development of protocols and of training programs, as well as examining the ethical and regulatory barriers to setting up studies, across Europe. For more information see http://www.prepare-europe.eu/.

The Twitter chat aims to exchange ideas among a networked community of health professionals @WeDocs about the ethics of informed consent for pandemic research. Ideas captured through this chat will in turn inform our research. We welcome your participation at this event.